half submerge some iron filings/steel wool/metal items in some water in a large (no-longer-needed) container.

Leave the steel in the water for as long as you can bear to (preferably days!) shake it up every so often to encourage the water to work on oxidizing the steel.

When you are reeady to use the miture, add some salt, shake the mixture again and apply to (preferably damp) leather.

This concoction actually reacts with rather than dyes the leather giving a solid black if done correctly- if in doubt experiment with time, salt etc.

I would reccomend trying this on scraps before commiting it to a finished project!

We did this using iron tablets from the chemist, ground them down in a pestle & mortar and mixed with water, and then submerged the leather. Did hubby's bracer and narrow belt like this. Its not a BLACK black, but more a very dark grey. Works well.

The vinager is required if you wish to used this on cloth, but not necessary for leather as the tanic acid in the leather provides the acid. You'll also find that your steel tools leave a dark grey mark on wet leather too.

Be careful using this iron-black on cloth as it causes the fibers to rot, or so I'm told.

As for cleaning things, I use the ash and oil recipe that some-one posted on the old forums. Mix wood ash (preferably Beech) with Olive Oil and grind the ash down as fine as you can. Use this to polish your armour. The ash takes the rust off a treat and the oil leaves a protective coating.

Warning, this turns the inside of your mortar black and unpleasent. Apparently the same effect can be achieved with snad if you have any to hand.

Colin, re the oil and ash, usually oil and ash result in a detergent effect - the basis for soap - hence its cleaning abilities, but I guess if a residue is left that is down to more oil than (ash) can be converted to detergent. But glad you mentioned it though as lye is authentic and cheap A and C as it were.

Use hardwood ash, sift the white ashes from any charcoal once cool of course, place the ashes in a tight woven cloth bag, leave the bag in some water - the strength of lye is dependent on the ratio of water to ash and the 'quality' of the ash, less water to ash and it is usuallty stronger.

Its natural degreasing properties make it great for cleaning cooking utensils, chopping boards etc.

It is also used as a bleaching agent.

Ash with a splash of water is great for cleaning out pots in full view of the public, again it degreases, any charcola in the ash is abrasive. Rinse and heat dry over low fire, add some oil to a cloth and give the pot the thinnest of layers of oil and heat until it smokes - this converts the oil to a carbon layer, seals the pots and wont go rancid.

Mary, nothing wrong idea with that except start a new thread in the appropriate era, that way we get a series of era specific recipes and techniques, makes it easier to search for them, one reason why I started it in this era, a 17thc, and 18thc version would be just as useful.

As long as people try to put a name and source to the info it helps, one aim is to get solid evidence as well as sensible guesses.

Mary, I normally use this tip on plain, veg tan leather to good effect- I have used this mix on chromed leather to dull an almost day-glo colour once (I didn't get black, merely a thin shading effect!).

I should have said, use a few applications and remember to give the leather a good wipe down afterwards to prevent leaving black marks all over the place!

For black paint - crush charcoal to a fine powder. Iif you damp it before crushing you don't end up looking like a chimney sweep, you get fewer lumps and it doesn't blow away in the slightest breeze. Dry out slightly damp powdered charcoal and mix with linseed oil - paint onto item needing blackening.

Alternative to linseed oil is egg white - I have an Iron Age style shield painted with some of the Mulberry Dyer's red ochre and egg white - its a very orangy red.

Clearwell Caves in The Forest of Dean sell natural 'ochre' at a reasonable price, orange, red and I think a greenish colour. If anybody is interested I can get hold of some good orange-red sandstone (pigment quality) for the cost of my petrol out to the disused quarry in the Forest. Let me know, I will be going out that way before the end of the summer.

Talking colours, Dave Moneyer has some beautiful embroidery silks naturally dyed at the moment. Well worth a look.

Place food items in a deep wooden bowl so that they don't reach the top. Take a piece of white linen (about 24" x 12" as a minimum), dampen it and spread across the top of the bowl. Place one corner of the cloth in a separate bowl of water.

The sun dries the cloth, the evaporation taking away some of the heat from the bowl underneath.

It doesn't go completely cold, but enough for a day's authenti-munching, plus it keeps the flies off.

http://www.griffinhistorical.com. A delicious decadent historical trifle. Thick performance jelly topped with lashings of imaginative creamy custard. You may also get a soggy event management sponge finger but it won't cost you hundreds and thousands.

I wont be doing any more events this year (no more timetabled), but will have some friends at Bosworth, if you are going. My lot are William gascoignes Fellowship, you probably wont know Vicky and Neil but Mark Vickers is a guest so if you recognise him, Neil wont be far behind, let them know how much and they will pay you, I will sort them out later.

I wont need more than say two pounds/kilo of it, that goes a long way.